Press as bound to defend the conduct of the Governor General on every occasion of interference with its freedom. It appears that, in July last, Mr. Buckingham was officially threatened with banishment for an attack published in his Journal on the Lord Bishop of Calcutta. I, for one, scruple not to declare, that, however provoking, irreverent, graceless, or slanderous, the paragraph, I entirely disapprove of the threatening; not, indeed, as illegal, for the 53rd of Geo. III. warrants a peremptory order of banishment from India against any, except Natives; but because I condemn the exercise of a bad power, however it may have been lawfully administered, or, in the case alleged, justly deserved.

"To imagine that despotic power can be safely entrusted to any man, even to one eminent for public virtue, is an error demonstrated by all experience. An additional and striking proof of this has recently occurred under the Madras Censorship. The Governor, Sir T. Munro, is distinguished for probity, talent, vigour, and an especial regard to the welfare of the Natives. The office of Censor he entrusted to Secretary Wood, a person of some ability and great industry. With this intrinsic merit, the Censor has the good fortune to be connected with Lord Londonderry, and is a candidate for a seat in council. Now, under the controul of these great officers of state, the Madras Press has been guilty of an injustice, such as never was and never could have been perpetrated by a Press indulged with the most licentious freedom.

"The melancholy story of Caroline Queen of England is in every one's recollection. Men have differed as to her character. Some have thought her guilty, some persecuted, some innocent; but who would have believed

that a Government, famed, too, for its wisdom, could have suppressed the Queen's defence, and have authorized the publication of all that tended to debase and to criminate her? Such, however, has been the conduct of the Madras Censor. He allowed the Queen of England to be defiled with all the licentiousness of a Free Press, and he stifled her defence. Never, I repeat, could a Free Press be guilty of such partiality—such monstrous injustice. Did the Censor imagine that this conduct could recommend him to his Sovereign? Was he so ignorant as not to know that the King of Great Britain presides over the administration of justice? Or so ungenerous, or so wicked, as to imagine that his Majesty would allow his worst enemy to be condemned without a full hearing? No, Censor! you are reputed an honourable man, and must be acquitted of such a design.

"The Calcutta Press has been usually charged with having carried to licentiousness the liberty obtained by the abolition of the base Censorship; and Mr. Buckingham is always named as having exercised this freedom to the greatest extent. Compare, however, this gentleman's indiscretions with the licentious wickedness of the Censorship at Madras. Contrast the conduct of the free with the shackled Press, in the case of the Queen. Nor let it be forgotten by the Lord Bishop of Calcutta and others, that the Marquis of Hastings, whose politics are founded in pure philanthropy and religion, has been accused even of having been accessory to murders, in the Madras Gazette,* then under a Censorship as rigid as was ever exercised by the Inquisition.

* See supra, pp. 57, 58.

"To conclude: my argument is designed to prove, that neither the most infallible of Censors, nor the wisest friend of freedom, should be entrusted with arbitrary power.

"I am, your most humble servant,
"LEICESTER STANHOPE.

"London, Jan. 29.”

Let us now compare a Press where no previous restraints on publication exists, and a Censorship. The latter may suppress any matter, however beneficial, and sanction the publication of any matter, however hurtful, to the public interest. The former can, in the first instance, suppress nothing. It may threaten, prosecute, or, under the sanction of a bad law, may send men home, and thereby check and retard the beneficial influence of free discussion; yet, notwithstanding this dangerous power, the Press during the last six years has enjoyed a large portion of freedom. A citizen has, indeed, been threatened and prosecuted; but the superstition and despotism of ages are tottering to their fall, and millions of men have been advanced in civilization.

SECTION XI.

Vote of Thanks to the Marquis of Hastings at the India-House.

"The best of our resolutions are bettered by a consciousness of the suffrage of good men in their favour."

On the 29th of May, 1822, the Court of Proprietors met for the purpose of deliberating, and passing their judgment, on the conduct of the Marquis of Hastings, in the exercise of his high office of Governor-General of British India. On this occasion I attempted to call the attention of the Court to the two marked features of his administration, namely, the general diffusion of education and the establishment of a Free Press. The connexion between these subjects is so close, that they cannot be well separated. I add the substance of what then occurred to myself and other proprietors.

"Col. STANHOPE. They were met here for the purpose of freely and boldly discussing the conduct of the Marquis of Hastings' government and passing their judgment on it. Having been acquainted with that Noble Lord from his infancy, having traversed the wide seas with him, and lived long under his roof, and under his government, he should know something of his private and his public character. They had heard, indeed, that eminent men were most admired at a distance: hence, it had become a piece of kingcraft, or of priestcraft, to keep those exalted personages from the public view. Was this wisdom? He knew not; but this he did know, that the Noble Lord was not of that stamp. He was

most admired by those who knew him best. There were no hidden vices lurking about his bosom. Neither intimacy, nor passion, nor adversity, nor exaltation, that sad corrupter of the human mind, could lead him from the plain path of duty. He might throw wide open the portals of his heart without reserve, and secure the esteem of the rigid moralist or the stern patriot; his whole ambition was to do good, and his pleasure seemed to emanate from that pure source, With Bolingbroke, he might say, there are superior pleasures in a busy life, which Cæsar never knew; those, I mean, which arise from a faithful discharge of our duty to the Commonwealth. Neither Montaigne in writing his essays, nor Des Cartes in building new worlds, nor Burnet in fancying an antediluvian earth, no, nor Newton in discovering the true laws of nature, and a sublime geometry, felt more intellectual joys than he feels, who bends all the force of his understanding, and directs all his thoughts and actions to the good of mankind.'—————

"Col. Stanhope said he would next speak of Lord Hastings' civil administration. The very name of Hydrabad was associated with every thing that was corrupt and vicious in government. The system of extortion and oppression that had been long, carried on in that state--a state, he blushed to say, under British protection-was a foul blot on our character. This stain had, however, been partly expunged by a late reform that had taken place there, under the judicious management of Mr. Metcalf, a benevolent and able man. Col. Stanhope would go deeper into the matter, and display anarchy in her frightful form, but that he had reason to believe that the Court of Directors had acted towards this suffering state as became a high-minded government.